PORTRAITS OF EXTRAORDINARY WOMEN GO ON EXHIBIT NOVEMBER 9 AT THE NORMAN ROCKWELL MUSEUM
Fall 24
By Anastasia Stanmeyer
THE TIMING couldn’t be better for Anita Kunz: Original Sisters, Portraits of Tenacity and Courage, an exhibition of artworks by internationally acclaimed illustrator Anita Kunz. It is made even more special because Kunz created three portraits of women who are intimately connected to the Berkshires. The exhibition, shown for the first time ever in a museum, will draw from the artist’s ongoing series of portraits of diverse and extraordinary women from ancient times to today, many unknown or underrecognized.
“This is a joyful show,” says Kunz from her studio in Toronto. “This will be a place where you can learn about women from the very beginning of our species to women who are doing extraordinary things now— young women, old women, women from around the world, different religions. I used colors that are vibrant. This is a celebration of people you should know.”
Original Sisters has its roots in Kunz’s longstanding engagement with women’s issues and her interest in women’s often unacknowledged contributions and experiences. The exhibition also will touch upon her 45-year career as an illustrator for print publications out of New York, covering mostly social and political issues. She has done many portraits for Rolling Stone, as well as The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, GQ, Time, Ms., and others. Her recent illustration, “The Face of Justice,” appeared on the July 22 cover of The New Yorker. She has illustrated more than 50 book covers and was the first woman and first Canadian to have a solo exhibit at the Library of Congress.
Kunz’s work as a top illustrator has meant always being on deadline. “I was always solving someone else’s visual problem,” she says. That left her little time for any personal projects.
Still, she had this yearning to put her own views out into the world. Then the pandemic happened. “I thought, this is kind of a perfect opportunity to take some time and figure out what I want to make paintings about. I started coming upon these women who I felt were kind of incredible,that I’d never heard of. I thought, this is crazy. How come I’ve never heard of the woman who discovered what the universe is made of? How come I never knew about these incredible women, some of whom are doing extraordinary things to daily death threats? Many were not household names, as I thought they should be.”
Under stay-at-home orders, Kunz began researching historical and contemporary women whose stories inspired her, and creating evocative portraits based on available images. Working in pencil, pen, and watercolor in a standard page-size format, Kunz created a portrait a day for months. Each image depicted a woman’s distinctive appearance, clothing, and occasionally objects relevant to her life, along with her name, sometimes as a reproduction of the woman’s actual signature, rendered onto the portrait.
When Kunz had created 150 portraits through her daily practice, she showed them to her friend Chip Kidd, a Pantheon graphic editor, who encouraged her to gather them in a book. Kunz did, and her 2021 book, Original Sisters: Portraits of Tenacity and Courage, presents those portraits, many of which are included as original artworks in Norman Rockwell Museum’s exhibition, along with subsequently created paintings.
“The sad thing was that the book was released in the middle of the pandemic, so we couldn’t do a book tour, we couldn’t do signings,” says Kunz. “So, hopefully, there will be a book two and book three.” Kunz certainly has plenty of portraits to fill more books. She has continued the project and is at 450 portraits and counting.
“For me, it has been a real learning experience,” she says. “I am part of a cultural dialogue. I love it. I keep finding more and more and more, and even now, I still have more. I think I’m going to keep doing it in the fall, when it gets cold. This could be my project for the rest of my life.”
Approximately 240 Sisters portraits will be on view at the Norman Rockwell Museum, accompanied by brief written profiles compiled by the artist. A self-portrait also will be exhibited of Kunz from her forthcoming Fables book. What’s pretty thrilling is that Norman Rockwell Museum commissioned Kunz to create three “Berkshire Sisters”—significant women tied to our region whose portraits also will be featured in the exhibition. Thanks to Kunz’s generous donation, these portraits will enter the museum’s permanent collection. The portrait subjects are Elizabeth Freeman, the first African American woman to successfully file a lawsuit for freedom in the state of Massachusetts; novelist Edith Wharton, the first woman to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize; and Shannon Holsey, president of the Stockbridge Munsee Band of Mohican Indians. (Thirty-nine of Kunz’s original illustrations from different aspects of her career also have been donated by the artist to Norman Rockwell Museum’s permanent collection.)
“Our museum is honored to present Anita’s artistically striking portraits of women, often missing from history, who have changed the world—and are still changing and advancing our culture and society,” says Norman Rockwell Museum Director/CEO Laurie Norton Moffatt.
“These portraits reflect a breathtakingly rich diversity of women, including pivotal women connected to our Berkshire community. At the cusp of a new political and cultural moment, Anita’s celebration of women’s strength, perseverance, and undeniable impact has a particularly powerful resonance and meaning.”
In the gallery, visitors will be surrounded by and immersed in the portraits. “We’re keeping the balance: global, diverse, indigenous, dancers,” says curator of exhibitions Jane Dini. The concept of a gallery, which goes back to the Italian Renaissance, is intentional in this exhibition. These galleries of great men were assembled as sites of power. There are modern manifestations of them, such as in libraries, banks, even museums, displaying the names and images of men as you walk into such places as the Detroit Institute of Arts, says Dini. The exhibition at the Norman Rockwell Museum will highlight and amplify women’s essential contributions to politics, science, activism, the arts, education, and other fields through special programming.
“One of the most exciting aspects of this project has been uncovering the hidden lineages and linkages that connect women across culture and time,” says Kunz.
A video of the process of Kunz painting these portraits will be part of the exhibition. The list of original portraits is impressive, drawing the viewer to explore women who have been obscured by history, as well as those whose names are widely known. For instance, there will be a portrait of Mary Anning, an archeologist who discovered Jurassic marine fossil beds in the cliffs along the English Channel in Southwest England. Her findings contributed to changes in scientific thinking about prehistoric life and the history of the Earth. Another portrait that has Berkshire connections is of dancer Isadora Duncan, considered to be the “Mother of Modern Dance,” who traveled to Stockbridge to perform in salons at several estates.
“There are portraits of some of our great young women in the book, like Greta Thunberg and Malala,” says Dini. “One of the things I’m trying to do is signal that they’re legacies: Greta Thunberg but for Rachel Carson but for Jane Goodall. They are important threads throughout time, and women have always been doing the work, even though we have these star performers today.”
“I agree with the whole idea of the thread,” says Kunz. “Throughout this whole project, I feel like I’m standing on the shoulders of other women who have gone before me. This has always been a labor of love. It’s a celebration; it’s an appreciation.”
Anita Kunz: Original Sisters Portraits of Tenacity and Courage, opens Saturday, November 9, at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge. At 5:30 p.m. on opening day, the artist and a panel of her creative collaborators will hold a conversation entitled “Anita Kunz and Friends: The Art of Collaboration.”
The conversation will be followed by a book signing and an opening reception. Tickets are $35 (free for museum members). nrm.org
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